A Wolf's Point Of View

I am wolf, I am as old as the mountains I call home. I have walked this earth long before human beings. I have seen mountains grow from small hills, form from small ravines and rivers born of trickling streams. I have walked with the great ones of eons ago, the great mammoth, saber tooth tigers and many others who have long been lost. I have seen the beginning of mankind.

I am wolf. I am predetor. A hunter. I hunt for food. I do not collect trophies to be mounted on the walls of my den. I do not hunt for enjoyment but out of necessity, for survival. I hunt to feed my children so they can one day walk upon mother earth and become of the circle of life.

I am wolf. I have watched for many years my hunting grounds deminish - trees replaced by buildings, game replaced by humans. I have been driven higher and higher into the mountains yet the humans still come and I'm driven even farther from the hunting grounds of my fathers father and his father before him. Yet I survive. My children survive.

I am wolf. I am a loyal, devoted and loving parent. Our children are our future. Just as human children are the future of all human beings. I am protective of my children and I take my responsibility of their nuturing as seriously as any human parent. I provide food for my children and provide them with a safe home until they are ready to walk their own path.

I am wolf. I do not choose to hunt in the presence of humans, but I have been given no other choice. My land has been taken from me, and now so shall my life and the lives of my children and in doing so our future is doomed. We will go the way of the old ones. Only in memories of distant pasts shall we live again. I am wolf. Wolves are beauty without vanity, innocence without naivete. We are one of the creators children and deserve to live our lives in peace. We were created for a purpose and it was not to be hunted and slaughtered.

I am wolf. Tonight I will lay and sleep beside my mate and our children. This may be the last night we will share together upon mother earth for tomorrow many of our brothers and siters will be slaughtered and perhaps ourselves as well. Our songs will be only a distant memory, fading into the past.

The Navajo word for wolf, "mai-coh," also means witch, and a person could transform if he or she donned a wolf skin. So the Europeans were not the only ones with werewolf legends. However, the American tribes have an overwhelming tendency to look upon the wolf in a much more favorable light. The Navajo themselves have healing ceremonies which call upon Powers to restore peace and harmony to the ill, and the wolf is one such Power.

"The caribou feeds the wolf, but it is the wolf who keeps the caribou strong."
- Keewatin Eskimo saying